Actor Dan Frazer dies at 90

Played police captain on 'Kojak'

Film and television actor Dan Frazer, best known for his role as the police captain during all five seasons of 1970s crime drama “Kojak,” starring Telly Savalas, died of cardiac arrest in New York on Friday, Dec. 16. He was 90.

The actor also appeared in all three iterations of the “Law and Order” franchise, playing a judge on the original series and on “SVU,” and recurred on daytime soap “As the World Turns” as Lt. McCloskey from 1986-96.

Frazer began his career at the dawn of the television age, appearing on a 1950 episode of “Studio One in Hollywood” and a 1953 segment of “The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.” He guested in a number of different roles on “The Phil Silvers Show” and later appeared in series including “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Car 54 Where Are You?,” “The Untouchables,” “McHale’s Navy” and “My Favorite Martian.”

The actor made his bigscreen debut in 1963 Sidney Poitier starrer “Lilies of the Field” and appeared in two early Woody Allen comedies, “Take the Money and Run” (as a psychiatrist) and “Bananas.” He then settled in for a string of roles mostly as cops in 1970s action films: “Fuzz,” starring Burt Reynolds; “The Stoolie”; blaxploitation film “Cleopatra Jones”; and “The Super Cops.”

After the 1973-78 run of “Kojak,” he reprised his role as Capt. Frank McNeil in the 1983 telepic “Kojak: The Belarus File.” He also guested on “The Waltons” and “Barney Miller.”

Frazer was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and an adviser to the Workshop Theater Company.